Reverend Death

Reverend Death is a documentary on a assisted suicide Unitarian minister named George Exoo who has questionable ethics. But his ethics may be light years ahead of his new assistant, Susan.

The Reverend is an internationally wanted man thanks to an assisted suicide in Ireland, and the documentary tracks his actions over a lengthy period of time after the incident. While it's clear that the filmmaker Jon Ronson likes his company, you may not have the same fuzzy feeling. Long before a shrink dissect his actions, you will arrive at his eventual conclusions yourself.

The assistant that the Reverend starts to employ is scary. Her whole world is a lie, and you want to see her fail.

I decline on giving away to much information on the film because of all the twists and turns seen within, but know that you will be entertained, regardless of what your assisted suicide politics happen to be. Just sit down and watch it.

I don't think I'd ever seen anything by Jon Ronson before, but I know now that if I see his name attached to a doc, to check it out.

This is a strange documentary compared with the usual shallow and judgmental documentary or the plain one sided make-it-seem-two-sided television show bordering reality TV. It is strange in many ways. The main characters are not normal. Not in the medical sense, but in the way they interact with the world and their take on life, or death. Than Ronson is getting in the story trying to get it, instead of trying to reveal it the way regular journalists do. Well, it takes a lot more time. Ronson is speaking of years of interactions with the main characters, while something like Supersize Me would take one to six months plus the promotion. Finally it is an illustration of what happens when the State takes a moral stance. Pretty much like any other prohibition based on the high moral stance of politicians, be it prostitution, alcohol or heroine.

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